Stocks Ignore the Day’s Data; Commodities Can’t

The spring swoon may not hit the stock market this year – nothing, it seems, can hit the stock market this year – but it’s visible in the real world. Three data points this morning, as well as Europe’s ongoing morass, show that all is not well outside Wall Street.

The news has hit the commodities complex, gold fell under the $1,400 mark, as investors extrapolated the lower demand for commodities implied by the reports. The dollar’s rise of late hasn’t helped matters (as commodities are priced in dollars). The stock market seems to have shaken it all off rather quickly — the Dow’s up 61 points as of this writing — which given the market’s mindset these days, isn’t terribly surprising.